Ormsby Guitars’ Genesis multiscale delivers a new dawn on contemporary guitarsForging the beauty of timeless electric guitars with modern appointments

The Genesis is the Ormsby approach to the classic double-cut super shredder with the edge required for the 21st century. It features our new fretting system allowing for tremolos and any pickup combination to be used without compromise on a multiscale guitar. Exotic timbers and classic relic’d nitro finishes are just some of the options that can be paired with your choice of pickup arrangements using the custom pickguard system. With uncompromising classic style and modern features, the Genesis is made for every player from classic blues right through to the most technical of metal!The Ormsby Guitars Genesis is the next chapter in vintage modern guitars.

5 years since the inception of the coveted Hypemachine custom shop model, Ormsby Guitars is proud to present this unique set of hand-made Exhibition models for Winter NAMM 2018. Covering a range of materials and exotic finishes that are synonymous with Ormsby Guitars’ innovative approach to modern extended range guitars, these instruments pay tribute to the Hypemachine’s 5 years of head-turning looks and sound.

Pale Moon Ebony 6 string Multiscale

Handcrafted in the Australian Custom Shop, this Hypemachine represents a perfect pairing of exotic timbers for a striking appearance and tonal richness. Featuring a master grade pale moon ebony top, it is paired with a chambered swamp ash body for balanced weight relief and added acoustic resonance. The body is matched with a figured 1-piece ziricote neck and fretboard and set off with maple pin-striping. A deep access set-neck provides complete fret access across the 24 jumbo stainless steel fret multiscale fretboard. This is all completed with custom hand wound Ormsby pickups that are coil-tappable and matched with custom Hipshot USA hardware.

Handcrafted in the Australian Custom Shop and previously only reserved for a select batch of SX Limited customs, this Hypemachine features Ormsby Guitars’ unique ‘vase’ finish. Beginning with a high-grade flame maple top, careful staining techniques are applied to give the top its unique look. The top is paired with a chambered Tasmanian Blackwood body and quilt maple control plate covers. A 5-piece maple and walnut bolt-on neck provides effortless playing and stability, and flows with a ivoroid bound ziricote fretboard. This is all completed with custom hand wound Ormsby pickups that are coil-tappable and matched with custom Hipshot USA hardware.

Vase 7 string Multiscale

Copper Top 7 string Multiscale

Handcrafted in the Australian Custom Shop, Ormsby Guitars continues to show unique aged copper finishes matched with stunning tonewoods. Starting with a chambered mahogany body it is matched with a blue oxide copper top that needs to be seen and felt to be believed. This eye-catching body combination is paired with a blue pearloid bound 24 fret multiscale flame maple fretboard and 3-piece maple neck. For further ease of playing, Z-pattern stone shell dot inlays contrast with the stunning figure of the fretboard. This is all completed with custom hand wound Ormsby pickups that are coil-tappable and matched with custom Hipshot USA hardware.

Handcrafted in the Australian Custom Shop, Ormsby Guitars is proud to unveil an all new finish option in the form of a genuine stone top! Beginning with a favourite home-grown tonewood, a chambered Tasmanian blackwood body is paired with the textured stone top. Don’t let the idea of stone fool you though, this Hypemachine is one of the lightest weight options from our Winter NAMM 2018 Exhibition Series. This unique pairing of materials is matched with a bolt-on 5-piece mahogany and ebony neck, and ivoroid bound Australian native wood, Gidgee 24 fret multiscale fretboard. This is all completed with custom hand wound Ormsby pickups that are coil-tappable and matched with custom Hipshot USA hardware.

Stone 7 string Multiscale

Black Limba 6 string Multiscale

Handcrafted in the Australian Custom Shop, this Hypemachine utilises a longstanding favourite body wood, black limba at its core, adored for its similarities in tonal qualities to that of the highly coveted Brazilian mahogany. It is paired with a deep access set-neck made from black limba as well. A 24 fret ziricote multiscale fretboard bound in ivoroid provides players with an understated and tonally rich playing experience. This is all completed with custom hand wound Ormsby pickups that are coil-tappable and matched with custom Hipshot USA hardware.

Handcrafted in the Australian Custom Shop, this stunning Hypemachine features a unique 1-piece maple burl top chosen specifically for its figure and angled to suit the aesthetics of the multiscale fret layout. The top is paired with a chambered mahogany body for balanced weight relief and acoustic resonance. A highly figured bolt-on 3-piece maple neck compliments the body wood combinations and is matched with an ivoroid bound snakewood fretboard. This is all completed with custom hand wound Ormsby pickups that are coil-tappable and matched with custom Hipshot USA hardware.

Maple Burl 6 string Multiscale

Spalt Maple 7 string Multiscale

Handcrafted in the Australian Custom Shop and rounding up the exotic 1-piece options in our Exhibition Series is a figured spalt maple bodied Hypemachine. Carefully selected for stability as well as its striking looks, this body wood is paired with a natural 5-piece wenge and flame maple neck and an ivoroid bound Macassar ebony fretboard. Complimenting these wood choices are custom quilt maple backplates and Z-pattern fretboard inlays for ease of playing. This is all completed with custom hand wound Ormsby pickups that are coil-tappable and matched with custom Hipshot USA hardware.

Handcrafted in the Australian Custom Shop, a select cut from Ormsby’s global wood library of figured Spanish cedar is at the core of this Hypemachine’s body and tonality. An oiled 7-piece Indian rosewood, Australian sheaok, and padouk neck with deep access provides effortless playing and stability and is matched to an ivoroid bound ebony fretboard with mother of pearl Z-pattern inlays. This is all completed with custom hand wound Ormsby pickups that are coil-tappable and matched with custom Hipshot USA hardware.

Ormsby Guitars channels the middle ages and death through a truly unique 6 string multiscale guitar.Modern luthiery forges with artistic inspiration from the past

Inspired by great artistic works of the late middle ages, the custom made SX Dance of Death 2 revives ancient wood carving techniques in a modern multiscale instrument.Further inspiration is derived from the great cathedrals of the world with a unique stained-glass effect over the laser-etched flame maple top, which has then been sealed, aged and cracked in nitrocellulose. Designed to focus your playing down to the bare essentials with a single Ormsby custom pickup and Hipshot USA hardware, this guitar will take your playing beyond this lifetime.

After a massive reception from its launch at Winter NAMM 2017, the Futura custom shop is back. Focusing on some of the Ormsby team’s favourite tonewoods this multiscale 6 string is made with a swamp ash body and black limba top. A 5-piece black limba and Tasmanian blackwood bolt-on neck paired with an ebony fretboard completes the tonewood configuration of this Futura. As with all our custom shop instruments at NAMM, hand wound Ormsby pickups provide the player with a wide variety of tonal options.

10 years after the original SX 8 string multiscale, the legend lives on.A tribute to the decade of multiscale at Ormsby Guitars

As part of Ormsby Guitars’ celebrations for ‘A Decade of Multiscale’ this sterling piece was created in the Australian custom shop, paying tribute to the original SX8 Multiscale from 2008.Featuring a full-thickness figured maple top in purple berry finish, we went all-out and matched it with a purple pearl finish over the chambered Tasmanian blackwood body. A 1-piece figured maple neck with deep access contour provides unhindered fret access to all 29 stainless steel frets. An ivoroid bound ebony fretboard with Z-pattern abalone inlays completes the tonewoods on this custom along with custom hand wound Ormsby pickups.Be sure to keep an eye out as we ramp up our celebrations with A Decade of Multiscale.

Born from chaos and powered by an imploding star, this battle-worn ‘metal’ model from the Ormsby custom shop is every 80s-kid’s dream. Crafted around a 6 string Mulitscale bolt-on construction, this guitar has endured galactic warfare and has lived to tell its tales. Utilizing numerous relicing techniques and custom electronics, this guitar is a true testament to master luthier Perry Ormsby's broad skill-set and creativity.

The Goliath GTR is built for the modern guitarist who wants a road and studio worthy instrument loaded with features. Most notably, it has a headless design that reduces the weight and length of the guitar, making it perfect for traveling with, and is complemented with body contours that flow naturally with however you play.Further underpinning these modern elements is our Multiscale fret system as standard for improved ergonomics and intonation, and a chambered body that adds a pleasant upper mid-range, weight relief, and acoustic resonance.The Goliath GTR is available in a wide range of colours and finishes, including our highly sought after copper top look, colour shift paints, and numerous exotic woods. As with all Ormsby GTR range guitars it’s made with custom Hipshot USA hardware and Ormsby pickups, and comes standard with a high quality fitted travel bag.No matter your style or genre the Goliath GTR has the tones and playability you desire.

Goliath GTR highlights include:

Custom headless hardware by Hipshot

Multiscale fretboard for improved ergonomics and intonation

A world of finishes including classic Ormsby copper

Chambered body for weight-relief and added resonance

Stainless steel frets and quality custom gig bag to keep you playing for years to come

Great news! We have a date for production of Run 4, followed by other outstanding runs as well.

Run 4 has a production commencement date of October 31st, which is just over 8 weeks away. We did get a date last week but I wasn't happy with it (end of November, and even that was pushing us before most brands effected by the CITES thing). WMI have pushed other brands back to bring us forward.I'm sure they will start earlier than this. But that's the date they've agreed to.

Jett and I will visit the factory to start QC as guitars are assembled. This means we will save time when guitars arrive here in Australia. We are currently in talks with DHL to see if we can ship direct from Korea to a number of clients to save even more time. I'm not promising this. But it's an option we are trying to make work.Get excited!!!!Basses will be built with run 4.

Run 5 will be started to ensure completion is four weeks after run 4. Run 6 a month after, but we are trying to get them built at the same time. It might work that run 5 and 6 SPARES are built last, to bring run 6 per-orders forward.

In case you have not heard or read elsewhere, regulations came into effect worldwide on January 2 of this year that now requires documentation when shipping instruments internationally that contain rosewood and some types of bubinga. That’s nearly 300 species of rosewood now under similar regulation as the highly coveted Brazilian Rosewood. The negative impact on the international guitar industry so far has been tremendous and I encourage you to first read this article by Brian T. Majeski for some informative insight into this poorly implemented new regulation. To quote part of the article “…regulations for rosewood that were rushed into place January 1 after just 90 days of deliberation. Prompted by the surging Chinese demand for rosewood furniture, the new rules are intended to put a brake on indiscriminate logging, which appears to be threatening the health of the world's rosewood forests. Yet based on the breakneck pace of implementation, it would appear that the authors made little effort to weigh the benefits of conservation against the costs the new rules would impose. “It is rumoured that the team who researched rosewood usage prior to bringing in these changes, did not know or take into account rosewood usage in musical instruments and how integral it is to the industry, as this restriction was designed to target the burgeoning rosewood furniture market in China. We and everyone else are stuck with these demands that were forced on us with no consultation. Never in CITES history have they brought in restrictions like this so fast, and then applied rules to the application process. The entire industry is up in arms. Everyone is effected.

So how has this impacted production with us at Ormsby Guitars since we don’t use rosewood in our GTR range?

As many readers would know, it has caused significant delays in production of our instruments because, despite not using the now restricted species of woods at all, our supply of chosen woods for production are stuck in shipping containers with the newly restricted woods, and thus, WMI cannot readily access them to commence construction of our guitars. Of the six containers in transit to our builders WMI prior to new CITES regulation coming into effect, two have been released. Unfortunately there also seems to be a haphazard approach (not WMI’s fault) to this as paperwork is not being approved in sequence of when it was filed, meaning containers that have been waiting longer for approval aren’t necessarily being released accordingly. That said, WMI are doing everything they can to manage this situation. Additionally, I personally purchased ebony to have shipped to WMI four weeks ago, to avoid any more delays. The seller was quite happy to take our payment, before advising us his supply for us was on back-order after everyone moved from rosewood to ebony, so it’s back to square one.

As you can imagine, this is incredibly challenging and stressful for us here at Ormsby Guitars. We have stores worldwide begging to sign on in new regions that we cannot commit to, and our network of incredible distributors who desperately want more guitars from us cannot get stock. In Australia alone I have heard of a certain large guitar company that has 6 containers of guitars sitting in barges off of Sydney since February because the guitars contain rosewood. Another large guitar company sent a container to Australia full of strings, with two custom ordered guitars, that happen to have rosewood necks. They’ve experienced 5 months of delays in processing so far, strings included! CITES Australia had four staff until one went on leave early in the year. They report 'paperwork has increased 5 fold'. At the core of it though, you, our supportive global community of musicians and clientele are being left in limbo by external forces that have demonstrated very little consideration for the industry you partake in, and one which brings you much creative pleasure. The paperwork for our runs are expected any day now. We will continue to keep you updated as best as possible with production timelines. Your patience in this matter is sincerely appreciated.

As it often goes, when it rains it pours.We've received our build spot for April, which will include the Goliaths from run 4, run 5 shortly after, and then run 6 commencing as projected. From June we now have a monthly build spot at World Music, meaning runs should have production dates as set at the time of pre-order and our dealers can more readily get stock.Hipshot have begun creating our new hardware (see photos) although this was a prototype to check everything prior to signing off. Minor changes to the intonation screw position but otherwise it's pretty close. Tightening up the front a little too so it's not so long. The tuning range and intonation range is massive to allow for you guys to really get crazy on string gauges. It's really comfortable and durable. The locking headpiece is also Hipshot now. If you've seen their usual pieces, they are really bulky. We've reduced weight and length by 75%. This also allows it to move back a tiny bit to make truss rod adjustment easier. We will have some spares of each Goliath model but not a huge amount so keep your eye out around here. We will do another Goliath run in the future but nothing is firm yet with when that will happen.We will be updating our web store very soon with all our new merchandise (see below) which includes our awesome new custom straps. Vouchers from run 1 can be used on these and you'll also be able to add items like this when finalising your bill on new runs so you'll be rockin' the coolest in Ormsby goods.